Apple has released iTunes 11.2.1 to fix this issue. As Apple says in its notes:

Upon each reboot, the permissions for the /Users and /Users/Shared directories would be set to world-writable, allowing modification of these directories. This issue was addressed with improved permission handling.

Apple is describing a security issue related to permissions, but this still does not explain why the folders were hidden; and only if you had Back to My Mac turned on.

Yet it was clear it was a bug. A lot of people went all conspiracy, saying that it’s another step in the iOSification of OS X by hiding another part of the filesystem. The mere fact that it didn’t happen to all users made it obvious that it wasn’t intentional.

In any case, grab the update from the App Store, and we can put this one behind us.

Subscribe to the Kirkville Weekly newsletter:

2 Comments

“A lot of people went all conspiracy, saying that it’s another step in the iOSification of OS X by hiding another part of the filesystem. The mere fact that it didn’t happen to all users made it obvious that it wasn’t intentional.”

Well, no. It could’ve been fully intentional along with a botched update mechanism, rather than unintentional along with a botched update mechanism.

The fact that it got pinned down to the iTunes update rather than the system update was the first time it was made obvious that it was unintentional…

Also, I don’t think one had to be conspiracy minded in the least to think it was intentional upon first report. It wasn’t too long ago that Library got hidden. (And FWIW, you seemed to think it intentional in your first post on the matter, tinfoil-hat conspiracy guy.)